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Sunday, July 29, 2012

NGSQ features review of The Guide to FamilySearch Online

My book, The Guide to FamilySearch Online, was featured in a review in the current edition of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. Here is an excerpt of the review:

New and intermediate users will find this guide helps them "navigate through the huge and complex online world created by FamilySearch" (p. 3). Readers are walked through the entire FamilySearch.org website, link by link and page by page. Even experienced users of FamilySearch.org may learn something new.

The lengthy first section covers FamilySearch.org. The second covers FamilySearch Indexing, largely of interest to volunteers in the FamilySearch Indexing program. The third addresses New.FamilySearch.org, where users preserve their family trees online and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members perform temple ordinances on behalf of the dead. The final section briefly covers other FamilySearch pages, including how to order microfilm online and FamilySearch.org on Facebook and Twitter.

The text is aimed at computer and Internet novices, explaining the origin of basic terms such as "blog" or the use of site logos to return to home pages. To be user-friendly, Tanner's book builds in the same kind of redundancy present on the FamilySearch.org site: at 361 pages, the text is sometimes repetitive. Advanced readers should be prepared to skim.

Most readers will use the book as a reference rather than as a program for learning FamilySearch.org. The volume is a hefty investment but of value to readers seeking a guide to an unfamiliar website.

2 comments:

Hi, I really enjoy reading your blog! I'm a student and I was wondering if you could take my quick survey about family life/history: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/family-life-survey/. I would really appreciate it and there's a special gift for one lucky respondent!